The advance of network technologies enables more human interactions over the network, which not only brings people closer together but also provides them with better access to information, goods, and services. For example, social media platforms can provide a venue for parties (e.g., persons, a group of people, organizations, etc.) from different locales to meet each other and to interact with each other over the network. As another example, virtual clinics allow patients to interact with remote physicians over the network for medical diagnosis. As yet another example, e-commerce platforms allow parties to engage in transactions for different kinds of goods, services, etc., over the network. Backed by ever-increasing network bandwidth and processing power, these network platforms can provide access (e.g., to friends, information, goods, services, etc.) to an ever-increasing population of network users.
Many of these “online” interactions, which occur over the network platforms (e.g., when the parties are in an online state with respect to the network platforms), may create follow-on “offline” interactions that do not involve the network platforms (e.g., the parties are in an offline state with respect to the network platforms). For example, people who make friends using a social media platform may want to meet each other in person, or in other platforms or contexts, to reinforce their friendship. A patient who interacts with a remote physician may want to visit the physician in person for a more detailed checkup. A buyer of merchandize or a service may also want to receive the merchandize or service from the seller (or the seller's representative) in person.
To ensure security, it may be necessary for the parties of the follow-on offline interactions to exchange certain information to authenticate each other, and to verify that the parties are authorized for the follow-on offline interactions. Moreover, to protect the privacy of each party, and to minimize the risk of exposing sensitive information to imposters, it may be necessary to minimize the scope of the information exchanged between the parties for authentication and authorization of the follow-on offline interactions.